Facebook help the blind “see” their news feed

Elizabeth Banks is a successful producer, director and actor, having helmed global box office hits over the last few years. Now she’s adding entrepreneur to her incomparable CV with the launch of WHOHAHA. WhoHaha is a comedy site putting women front and centre, featuring both original and curated films (think Funny Or Die). The channel is designed to be an online entertainment destination also for currently running YouTube series, such as “Ask a Badass,” where she interviews other comedians and co-stars including Chris Pratt and Jennifer Lawrence. The site will also showcase fresh faces from YouTubers like Hannah Hart, best known for her “My Drunk Kitchen”. Click here to HAHA.

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Who’d have thought Taylor Swift would star in Apple’s latest TV spot? It was only last year that the mega star was boycotting Apple Music over artist compensation, but that’s clearly water under the bridge. She is the latest celeb fronting up to promote a three month free trial in a 60-second ad, supposedly “based on true events”. The ad shows Swift preparing for a cardio workout and as she begins rapping to ‘Jumpman’ by Drake and Future, she gets distracted and falls off the treadmill. Classic Taylor. Check it out:

Visually impaired users are missing out on a heap of updates from their friends on Facebook. Now, Facebook’s engineers have harnessed the power of an artificial intelligence network to describe these pictures to blind, or, partially blind users. They’re describing it as “automatic alternative text” based on a neural network primed with billions of parameters and millions of examples. The AI software doesn’t actually “see” the picture, but can rather compare the objects in it with its vast internal database of similar photos and make an educated guess about what’s being shown. The feature is now live on the Facebook iOS app. To find out more click here.

Forget Big Brother, Oculus Rift is following your every move and storing it in Facebook’s ever growing bank of information. According to Oculus’ new terms and conditions, those who agree to use their VR headsets allow their parent company, Facebook to collect information about their physical movements and dimensions. When the headset’s software is installed on a computer, it adds a process that allows the PC to watch what the headset is doing and send that info back to Oculus. This allows the headset to determine when it is being used, and to then turn itself on. This enables the company to collect information about people’s head movements and activity, and send it back to advertisers. Bit creepy?

The rumors are true. Samsung is developing a foldable smartphone, landing on the market in 2017. The tech giant has filed for a patent on a foldable smartphone in Korea, that details how, and what we can expect from this newly dubbed ‘Smartlet’. This new cellular innovation by Samsung exists as a 5-inch smartphone that unfolds into a 7-inch tablet if you require a larger display. Samsung is set to mass produce the device by the end of this year, with plans to launch the Smartlet sometime next year. Move over Phablets, foldable phones are in town.

Figuring out which shade of eye shadow or lipstick suits you, out of hundreds available on the market, can be a messy task. Sephora and ModiFace have come up with a solution to improve the constant applying and removing task, thanks to live 3D facial tracking and stimulation technology. Potential customers simply look into their webcams or mobile phone cameras, and the software will map their features and render beauty products onto their faces. To make the experience more realistic, the virtual makeup responds to user’s facial expressions and movements. Here’s a look: